Dr Yik Keng Yeong is right to highlight our country's existential threat arising from a dismal fertility rate (Even more needs to be done to encourage having babies, Nov 11).

However, having seen how previous rounds of baby bonus and support measures are not having much of an impact on raising fertility rates, I'm not optimistic that throwing in more of the same is going to achieve a different outcome. A complete rethink on tackling this issue is required.

I believe that anything ingrained from a young age will have a tendency to stay and have a profound impact on how the individual will act later in life.

Israel is a small nation, yet it punches way above its weight on the frontiers of knowledge, technology and innovation. This is not surprising as respect for knowledge acquisition is deeply ingrained from a young age.

The Japanese are taught from a very young age to be involved in chores, clean classrooms after use and have great consideration for others. Their civic-mindedness is world-renowned.

Coming back to the issue of fertility, these examples show that we have to ingrain the concept of the family from a very young age here.

This should be incorporated in classroom lessons the same way civics education was part of classroom lessons during earlier times.

Today, the concept of the family is under great threat from many angles: work/financial pressures taking precedence and the urge to self-indulge (think travel/ shopping/entertainment channels).

A complete rethink of approach to save the family is what is required sometimes.

Peh Chwee Hoe